GOVERNMENT DELIVERS MORE CLIPBOARDS
IN MAY 2021 NEW ZEALAND POLICE’S COMMERCIAL VEHICLE Safety Teams announced it would roll out new mobile brake testers, from June 2021 nationwide. The reason for this was because of apparent risks with the safety of our trucking fleet.
The Director of Road Policing stated at the time; “By investing in new technology that helps identify possible brake failures we can prevent potential harm being caused.” Preventing harm certainly sounds like a good idea.
However, as is often the case with central government, the implementation can be a different matter.
A 2013 briefing I obtained noted that Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit (CVIU) officers were certified Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors as well as qualified Dangerous Goods Inspectors. That is a lot of clipboards to carry.
I asked Police Minister Chris Hipkins how they were going with the rollout of mobile brake testers and roadside testing campaign in a series of Written Parliamentary Questions.
‘How many roadside tests, if any, have been carried out by NZ Police commercial vehicle safety teams using mobile roller brake testers by region and month since they were purchased, and how many of these tests showed that brakes failed to meet the required performance standard?’
As it turns out, no roadside tests have been undertaken since the Mobile Roller Brake Testing Machines (RBTMS) were purchased. The reason; “The rollout of the mobile RBTMS requires additional safety assessments to be completed before they are deployed across New Zealand.”
It seems ludicrous that Police would have ordered the machines without bothering to find out if they could be used at the roadside. One of the various inspectors must have missed something when the order was placed.
I also asked the question - how many mobile roller brake testers have been purchased for use by NZ Police commercial vehicle safety teams, what is the cost, and in what regions are these located?
Police ordered six mobile Roller Brake Testing Machines (RBTMS), of which five have been delivered. The sixth unit has been delayed due to supply chain issues and should be delivered by the end of September 2022.
I had less success finding the cost though, which would not be released because; “The cost of the mobile RBTMS is deemed commercially sensitive and is not releasable. All five machines are currently located at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Centre location at Stanley Street, Auckland.”
It appears they are in storage. And the cost is likely too embarrassing to disclose. The safety risk here appears to be with taxpayers’ money.
Trucks are required to undergo a Certificate of Fitness (COF) inspection every 3-12 months, with the majority requiring an inspection every six months. As part of a COF inspection, the brake condition and performance is inspected.
The COF inspection regime appears to be working to progressively reduce the number of truck crashes where brakes failed, from 47 in 2017, to 19 in 2021. Which begs the question, why were RBTMS even necessary?
The road freight industry is under massive pressure from driver shortages, poor road conditions, and juggling customer demands to maintain prices. Drivers are expected to walk around and check their vehicle before every journey, because they are responsible for the truck and the freight.
This exercise in bureaucracy speaks to the wastage we regularly see from central government. How is it that we’re meant to be happy with potholes all through our roads when unknown amounts are being spent on seemingly superfluous expenses.
Many unnecessary tasks like this occur within the public service simply because there are people employed to do them, whether they’re in the public interest is often questionable. Why do we put up with the idea that Government can get bigger, but it can never get smaller? How many zombie departments and zombie bureaucrats does this country have? People who just carry on collecting a paycheque for their own purposes instead of any public purpose.
ACT says we need to zero base government. By that I mean going back to zero and ask ourselves, if the departments and bureaucracies we have now didn’t exist, would we establish them today? I would be amazed if we couldn’t get the size of Government back to where it was in 2017 by eliminating activities that don’t fit with these simple questions. In fact, I suspect whole departments would go. T&D